If you never try, you will never know.

“All successful people, men and women, are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.”Brian Tracy

Let’s talk about trying… Yup, trying.

It’s a weird topic I know, but it’s the core of all great achievements – effort. What I’ve sadly begun to notice is that it’s easier not to try at all than to put yourself out there and potentially fail.

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”Thomas Edison

On a personal note, I really struggled with the idea of putting myself out there to go after something I wanted. And sometimes I still can’t shake that feeling of embarrassment or even selfishness to share my goals with my friends, never mind the world. But slowly as I grow older more and more I see the importance of putting yourself ‘out there.’

Fail to fail – focus on persistence. I’m the first person to admit that I hate failing. It is literally the worst feeling in the world, but every single person on this planet has failed. It’s not the act of failing that’s an issues, it’s how you get up and persevere.

Persistence is probably one of the most admirable characters a person can possess. It’s the ability to be determined to do or achieve something regardless of any setbacks. (source)

Having the courage to potentially fail is the first step in succeeding. Having humility and awareness of your limitations of course will help you on this journey, but the decision to take action proves time and time again to be the crucial first step.

Once your foundation is set and you’re in the position to take actionable steps, it’s so important to evaluate where you are at this present moment. Of course the majority of people would like to drop everything, pack up and go on a year long vacation, but to be blunt, that’s just not a feasible vocation to go after. A balance between responsibilities and your goals is crucial to find. It makes the journey to living your dreams actually attainable, small incremental changes create habits, which over some period of time, make huge impacts on your life. And ultimately finding this balance, will help you eliminate excuses from holding you back in life.

Focus on things that matter.

Be true to what you want and who you are. Although being so interconnected is a powerful thing, it can also be increasingly distracting from the end goal. Use your bucket list as a guide to what matters most in life.

“Time is scarce. Furthermore, time is the most valuable resource we have. It’s the one thing that each of us are privileged with and the one thing that we can use to move forward or step back. If you spend your time focusing on things that have no significance to your life how can you expect to accomplish anything? The most important thing in life is recognizing and embracing the idea of prioritization. If you prioritize things that are important to you, you will become closer to living the life of you dreams. You need to identify who and what is important to you and allocate your attention to these things rather than those that won’t help you get where you wan’t to be.” (source)

Sara is the marketing and community outreach coordinator for Bucketlist.org. She is passionate about all things travel, culture and sports, and is excited to start knocking off some of her bucket list dreams in the near future. Connect with Sara by emailing sara@bucketlist.org or linkedin.com/in/sararuthnum.
Check out Sara's bucket list here http://bucketlist.org/list/sara.ruthnum/